Farewell to Monmouth Mall

 The mall that sits on rt 35 and 36 off Wyckoff Road will be history come March. Monmouth Mall's humble beginnings started off in 1960 as a open air shopping center known as the Monmouth Shopping Center starting with anchors Bamberger's and Montgomery Wards. By the 1970's, that small shopping plaza turned into the enclosed Monmouth Mall in 1975 which grew with three more anchors and Wards left and Alexander's coming in along with Hahne's, JC Penny and Abraham and Straus (A&S) which was a nice solid mall lineup for a decade. As a small kid growing up in Freehold, this was the first major shopping plaza I ever stepped foot in being Freehold did not recieve a major sized mall for a good two decades. Monmouth was thriving well into the 1980's till the mall started a few anchor changes as Alexander's left in the early 80's and Caldor came in as a discount alternate to the 4 upscale anchors. In 1986, Bamberger's rebranded to Macy's as the chain retired the regional company under their portfolio. By the end of the decade, Newark based Hahne's went out of business. The early 90's said hello to the legendary Lord & Taylor to the mall as Caldor closed and moved to nearby Ocean Twp. also in the 90's another legendary chain met its fate as A&S was retired in 1995 after Macy's was aquired by Federated Dept Stores which also eliminated their successor to A&S in the mall which was Stern's which moved that year. Other changes to Monmouth in the 1990's was a 15 screen Sony Theatre which absorbed to AMC, a boardwalk themed food court and The Wiz moved in after being at its small location on rt 36. The 2000's started with a new anchor in the old A&S building which was Reading, Pa based Boscov's which closed by the end of the 2000's and reopened in 2012 after getting out of bankruptcy and still at the mall to this day. by decades end heading to the 2020's Lord and Taylor went out of business and JC Penny closed in 2022 as well as a lotta mall stores in the 2 floor section which will be demolished in March 2024. What is exactly staying in Monmouth??. Boscov's, Macy's the mid level of the mall and the AMC theatre. What is going to be new with the property as I read Luxury apartments will be built as well as retail space called Monmouth Square. Thank you for the memories Monmouth Mall my youth was awesome going here. r.i.p. 1975-2024 































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

malls when they opened in NJ **revised**

Image
 Found some ads when some of the malls opened in NJ. The one mall I actually went to opening day was Freehold raceway mall in 1990. Over that summer I stayed at my grandmothers while my mom had to work. So that was pretty easy in a way.                                                      Woodbridge center 1971  Woodbridge center opened in march of 1971 with just A&S with its very first NJ Store followed by Stern’s later Macy's and Orbachs later Steinbach and Lord & Taylor a few months later.  In 1978, the mall got a expansion in which JC Penny and Hahne’s later Fortunoff and now Boscov's got added as the mall had five anchors and over 200 shops, restaurants. Gaylan's later renamed to Dick's sporting goods became the malls 6th Anchor in 2003 Today when I go to Woodbridge, its on the verge of dying since the pandemic. It's slowly go...
Read more

Abraham and Straus grand openings in the tristate.

Image
 Over the past years A&S expanded into different states including New Jersey and Pennsylvania                                                     1971 Woodbridge center   A first for New Jersey as the chain opened its first store at Woodbridge center mall with its pointy unique structure on the exterior it was a huge three floor store. The chains first effort in NJ was a success. In 1992, the store received a renovation inside in which there was a celebration in which the late NJ Nets star Drazen Petrovic signed autographs and 90210 star Gabrielle Carteris who played Andrea Zuckerman on the show. Sadly the store closed in 1995 after Macy’s phased out the A&S brand. The store was sold to Sears and opened that year and remained till 2020 and closed during the COVID pandemic it currently sits vacant.          ...
Read more